The fight grew more intense as punches were exchanged in rapid succession. Every strike was met with a block, every block with a counter, and every counter with another attack.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The clones and Alex weren't landing any decisive blows, but with every exchange they grew more refined. By continuously copying Deathstroke's movements and adapting them into their own fighting style, the gap between them slowly began to close.
Deathstroke realized it too.
He stopped holding back.
In one smooth motion, he drew his iconic swords and cut down the two remaining clones in a pair of clean slashes before charging straight toward Alex.
The blade pierced his chest.
Or so he thought.
Puff...
The body dissolved into smoke.
Before Deathstroke could react, the real Alex burst out from the side and drove a powerful roundhouse kick into his ribs.
Unlike the clones, this was the original.
His physical strength and mass were far greater, sending Deathstroke crashing through the wall.
"Thank goodness I figured out that Transformation Technique," Alex thought.
The moment Deathstroke had identified him earlier, Alex had used the brief opening while Slade was occupied with the clones to quietly transform into one of the scattered icicles littering the frozen floor.
From that point on...
Deathstroke had been chasing the wrong target.
I was still cautious and alert, but at the worst possible moment...
I relaxed.
For just a split second, I forgot who I was fighting.
Beep... Beep... Beep...
The sound instantly snapped my attention downward.
A grenade.
It had landed right at my feet.
"When the hell—?"
I didn't even finish the thought before instinct took over. My legs tensed, ready to throw myself clear of the blast.
Bang! Bang!
Two shots ripped through the wall before I could move.
One tore into my shoulder.
The other punched through my leg.
My body stumbled as pain exploded through both wounds.
"...Damn it!"
"Damn... I was close."
Alex crashed onto the floor, gritting his teeth as pain shot through his body. The bullets had done far more damage than he expected. Pain was still something new to him, but he wasn't about to shrug off gunshot wounds like they were nothing. He wasn't invincible, and adrenaline alone wasn't going to magically make him ignore reality.
The timer on the grenade reached zero.
Before he could force his battered body to move—
Three more grenades landed around him.
His eyes widened.
"...Right."
"It's Deathstroke."
Those were his last coherent thoughts.
Oddly enough...
His mind didn't linger on Deathstroke.
It drifted to Lois.
Then...
Something changed.
The crimson glow of his Sharingan slowly faded, replaced by a pale, pearl-like white. His vision expanded in an instant, piercing through the walls around him.
He saw her.
Safe.
Still unconscious.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
Then—
The explosion swallowed everything.
One might wonder why Alex never used the Susanoo or any of his stronger Mangekyō abilities for one simple reason.
He couldn't afford to.
The prolonged battle had already pushed his eyes to their limit. The familiar sting of overuse had long since become a dull ache, and the first signs of blindness were already creeping into his vision. Plus there's the fact that he was still recovering from using it before deathstroke even showed up.
More importantly...
Amanda Waller wasn't someone who sent only one contingency.
If Deathstroke had failed, there was every possibility that another team was waiting nearby.
Burning through the last of his eyesight just to survive one encounter would have been a reckless gamble.
Unfortunately...
Deathstroke never gave him the chance to make that decision.
Gasping for air, Alex suddenly shot upright from Lois' lap, his lungs desperately pulling in breath as though he'd been drowning. He hyperventilated uncontrollably before stumbling toward the kitchen, barely making it to the sink before emptying the contents of his stomach. His entire body shook violently, refusing to calm down.
Nothing...
Nothing could have prepared him for that.
The images.
The smell.
The heat.
The phantom pain that still clung to every inch of his body despite knowing the wounds were gone.
Watching death in a movie was one thing.
Reading about it was another.
Living through it...
That was something else entirely.
Alex leaned heavily against the counter, gripping it so tightly his knuckles turned white as another wave of nausea hit him.
He wasn't injured anymore.
But his mind hadn't caught up with that reality.
For the first time since arriving in this world...
Alex was truly shaken to his core.
Still shaken from the experience, Alex barely noticed Lois approaching until she placed a hand on his back.
"Alex... Alex, are you okay?"
Her voice was filled with genuine concern.
"You look pale all of a sudden."
She studied him carefully, confused and worried. In all the years she had known him, she had never seen Alex this shaken.
And that was saying something.
Both of them had grown up in homes that were far from normal.
Lois knew what it was like to live with fear inside her own house. Her father was an alcoholic, and her parents had been cruel and abusive toward her. She had reached a point where she was close to breaking completely.
Then she met Alex.
Their situations were different, but the pain was familiar.
Alex's parents were neglectful in a different way. They weren't the type to constantly hurt him; they were the type who sometimes seemed to forget they even had a child. He could go hungry, get bullied at school, and no one would notice unless someone else brought it up.
Until the two of them met.
Lois needed someone who would stay.
Alex needed someone who would care.
From that point on, they became each other's support.
Even when Alex was just a child himself, he acted far more mature than he should have. He helped her through everything, never judging her, never turning away.
Even when Lois finally broke and froze her parents in a moment of desperation, Alex didn't condemn her.
He didn't abandon her.
He helped her.
Looking back, it was probably the moment that turned her attachment into something much deeper... and far more obsessive.
"Is something wrong?"
Lois's voice pulled Alex back as his breathing finally started to calm.